Ok, Everybody Out Of The Pool, Netsch Begs

Ask state Comptroller Dawn Clark Netsch, a Democrat running for governor. For the last two weeks, her campaign has run a TV commercial in which she steps up to a pool table and runs the rack, ending with a nifty combination shot as a narrator hails her as a "straight shooter."

The idea was to combat Netsch's image as a cerebral, academic bureaucrat and show voters a side of the candidate they don't normally see.

It worked, Netsch said Thursday. Kind of. And she's not really comfortable about it.

"Everyone keeps saying, `What a great commercial,' " said Netsch, 67. "In fact, it's the first thing out of their mouths. The second thing everybody wants to know is if I really made those shots."

Everybody.

As Netsch walked through the terminal at Meigs Field Thursday, ready to take off for a day of campaigning, a police officer said: "Oh, Dawn Netsch. Great commercial."

A downtown messenger service employee volunteered to work for the campaign after seeing the ad. And the Decatur television anchor who interviewed Netsch about weightier topics such as education and crime Thursday asked, "Did you really make all those shots?"

Not even members of the Decatur Herald and Review editorial board, which normally concerns itself with making endorsements based on weightier issues, could resist.

"We had no idea the ad was going to strike such a chord," said Netsch spokeswoman Gail Handleman. "There was no way we could've known."

All this attention being paid to what Netsch calls a "superficial" campaign ad does not sit well with her.

"If I had known the effect the commercial would have, I might not have made it," Netsch said. "It's completely opposed to everything that I stand for. I want my campaign to be about substance. Government is not about fun."

In Netsch's world, government is about hard work on hard-to-solve problems, worked out by people who are often bitter enemies.

And Netsch worries that while she's trying to hammer home details of her education funding and crime program, some voters may be more concerned with how she banked the one-ball.

The problem was evident as Netsch campaigned Downstate on Thursday. "I really loved that commercial," said Dave Olson, a cameraman for Decatur-based WAND-TV. "Those shots you made were really, really great shots. Whew!"

Netsch smiled politely, gritted her teeth and then walked away without a word.

The commercials are the brainchild of Saul Shorr, of Philadelphia-based Shorr and Associates, the political consulting firm handling advertising for the Netsch campaign. Shorr said he devised the ad looking for a "creative vehicle to talk about her honesty, candor and straight shooting."

"We wanted to make some ads that had high impact and also had a little bit of moxie to them," Shorr said. "Dawn is a cerebral, bright person with a stark image. We wanted to have a little fun."

So in early January a reluctant Netsch, who learned to play pool in high school as the director of a Cincinnati community center, went to a Wrigleyville billiard hall. And for three hours she and a pool pro worked on the difficult bank and combination shots seen in the commercial.

Netsch, who played her last game of pool in 1987, said she made every one of the shots in the commercial by herself. No stand-ins were used, her handlers are quick to say.

The spot began airing last week in northern Illinois and will be rotated throughout the state with three other ads as funds allow.

Despite Netsch's qualms about the commercial, it will not be pulled. "I won't throw away votes," she said. "I just hope they vote for me for the right reasons."

As a result, the legend of The Commercial will continue. In fact, it may even grow.

Case in point: After a short campaign stop Thursday in Pekin, near Peoria, Netsch scurried past a volunteer previewing the spot to some Downstate journalists.

As the scowling Nestch hopped into a van to catch a plane, Peoria County Clerk Mary Harkrader could be heard saying: "What a great commercial. That is a really, really good ad."